Author Bill Bryson (‘Sunburned Country’, ‘A Walk in the Woods’) spent an afternoon here at Windgrove gathering information for an upcoming National Geographic article on Tasmania.
Yes, he was impressed with the Peace Garden and Peace Fire and landscape, but I spent most of my time making sure that he fully understood the seriousness of the damage being done to Tasmania by the collusion between the Labor government, Forestry Tasmania and Gunns. I did not paint a pretty picture when I lectured him on the basic fundamentals of the truth behind the political spin in Tasmania’s forests.
When Bill asked me what I thought of the premier of Tasmania, Jim Bacon, I responded:
“A politician willing to squander the wealth of the state’s natural assests simply because he has neither the intellect nor wisdom to recognize the potential that is uniquely Tasmania. He gives lip service to the arts, eco tourism, inclusive government and the Tasmanian Together process, but only because some spin doctor has told him this would be good for his image. The tragedy for the people of Tasmania is that he lacks any depth of understanding of what he is ruining.”
Tasmania’s government has made its corporatised forestry department, Forestry Tasmania, exempt from the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conversation Act, the Threatened Species Act, the Freedom of Information Act, and our state’s own Resource Management and Planning System.
Is this not corrupt or what? And Tasmania is the only state that sets out to poison its own native animals. “Clean and green???”
On Forestry Tasmania, I said:
“Under the directorship of Evon Rolley, the old growth rain forests have been clearfelled and destroyed with a demonic enthusiam equal only to the immorality of the fire bombing of Dresden. In their drive to make Tasmania the toilet paper center of the world, they are willing to sacrifice, not only the hundreds of thousands of animals and plant species living in the diverse habitate of our old growth forests, but also the thousands of employment opportunities related to boat building, honey production, the furniture industry, the arts, true eco-tourism, organic farming, scientific research and land management.
If this is supposely world’s best practice, it doesn’t say much for the world.”
On Gunns, I said:
“Their immense profits are only because of the insistance of the government to turn a blind eye to the ecological and economic damage being done to our natural heritage. The money being paid out to the share holders and the board of directors comes from the government and Forestry Tasmania handing over the keys to the public’s bank vaults and walking away from their responsibility to protect, preserve and promote this increasingly tarnished golden island.”
Bill Bryson loved his visit to Windgrove.
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